New Vaccines Will Emerge in the 2020s to Help Us Overcome Some of the Most Intractable Diseases

January 4, 2020 – Today there are 26 vaccine-preventable diseases including inoculations to treat smallpox, polio, diphtheria, rubella, measles, and whooping cough, just to name a few. But the next ten years is likely to see a profusion of new vaccines for a number of intractable diseases that have resisted treatment. Among these (in alphabetical order) are the following:

• Addiction to smoking – NicVAX is a vaccine being developed by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals to treat smoking addiction and prevent smoking relapses. The vaccine produces antibodies to nicotine inhibiting the drug from crossing the blood-brain barrier where it normally would induce the release of neurotransmitters responsible for addiction craving.
• Alzheimer’s and Dementia – a new vaccine developed at Flinders University in South Australia may pave the way for preventive treatment for Alzheimer’s and dementia. The vaccine removes brain plaque and tau protein aggregates associated with the onset of the disease. A combination of two vaccines, one an anti-amyloid-beta and the other an anti-tau vaccine combined with a safe adjuvant technology called Advax™ developed by Vaxine Pty Ltd is showing promise as a new way to prevent the onset of the world’s most brain debilitating disease.
• Dengue Fever – Dengvaxia, a vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur, represents a way to protect young people from getting Dengue. It can be administered to those who have had a bout of Dengue. Dengue appears to have four different viruses associated with the disease which makes immunizing people not previously infected more challenging. It also is sometimes asymptomatic or presents as a mild infection. What’s still needed is a screening test to determine if a person has had prior exposure to Dengue.
• Diabetes – Diamyd Medical has developed a vaccine containing GAD65, a human recombinant protein, to treat Type 1 Diabetes, also known as Juvenile Diabetes. The treatment slows down or halts the body’s destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Incidents of the disease are on the increase with 1.25 million cases currently in the United States and expected to grow to 5 million by mid-century. The rate of the disease in under 19 youth is 1 in 430 to 530 in the United Kingdom.
• Ebola – A hemorrhagic fever that has killed thousands in multiple outbreaks in Africa may finally have met its match in a recombinant vaccine called rVSV-ZEBOV-GP that is not only curing the infected but also providing protection for the general population. It is one of seven Ebola vaccines being tested in clinical settings.
• Hepatitis C and E – Hepatitis in all its alphabetized versions from A to E attacks the liver leading to cirrhosis, infection, cancer, and organ failure. Recently both Innovax and GlaxoSmithKline have reported preliminary success in clinical trials for their recombinant E vaccines. Hep C vaccines have been harder to develop but Glaxo seems to be getting closer to finding a recombinant C vaccine that could repair damaged livers and provide protection against acquiring the disease. Today 71 million around the world have Hepatitis C. In many cases those infected with Hepatitis C don’t know they have it until liver symptoms begin to occur. Global statistics for Hepatitis E indicate 20 million are infected every year.
• Herpes – Genital herpes is caused by a virus called Herpes Simplex 2. It is extremely common and often undetected and can be spread through sexual contact. In the United States, one in five adults has experienced a genital herpes infection. When passed on in utero it can cause disability or death to the child. A new vaccine, HSV529, from Sanofi Pasteur, is showing favourable results in clinical trials, both as a prophylactic and cure. It is one of four vaccines under development that could end the occurrence of Herpes in the general population.
• Hypertension – High blood pressure or hypertension is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. The World Health Organization estimates 1.13 billion people suffer from this condition with 2/3s living in low- and middle-income countries. It is one of the major causes of premature death worldwide. Today the treatment for hypertension involves a daily dose of pills including calcium channel blockers, diuretics, and Angiotensin II receptor blockers. Recent results from clinical trials for a vaccine called AngII (AngQb-Cyt006) are showing promise that a cure may be in the works.
• HIV/AIDS – Today 37 million around the world are living with HIV, and 2 million new cases are detected annually. Bavarian Nordic, a Danish biopharmaceutical company, has developed MVA-BN HIV, which is currently showing favourable results in Phase 2 clinical trials. Other pharmaceutical companies including Crucell, GlaxoSmithKline, Mymetics and Novartis are in hot pursuit of a vaccine as well.
• Malaria – This disease is mosquito-transmitted and caused by four parasites in the Plasmodium falciparum family. In 2018, 228 million cases were reported along with 405,000 deaths worldwide. A promising vaccine, Mosquirix RTS,S/AS01, a recombinant malaria preventive containing proteins from the malaria parasite is the first to show reductions in cases of young children with no evidence of recurrence.
• Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus – Goes by the acronym MRSA, and is a staph bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. A byproduct of our modern medical world and hospitals, MRSA is a byproduct of our overuse of antibiotics in treatment. In 2017 in the United States there were more than 120,000 cases of MRSA infections and 20,000 deaths.  Both Merk and GlaxoSmithKline have been developing a vaccine preventative with the former Cubicin in Phase 2 clinical trials, and the latter, Staph-VAX Pentavalent, in Phase 1.
• Multiple Sclerosis – This autoimmune disease known by the acronym MS affects 5 million globally and causes musculoskeletal and neurological problems for those who suffer from it. It is described as a Northern Hemisphere disease because of the preponderance of cases can be found in northern climates. Opexa Therapeutics is working on a vaccine called Tcelna, a T-cell immunotherapy specifically tailored to each patient’s immune response profile to myelin, the protective coating on nerve cells that is commonly damaged with MS patients.
• Obesity – Could there be a vaccine in our future to help combat obesity? The Mayo Clinic describes obesity as a complex disease that is more than about body fat. It is a medical problem that leads to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer. Braasch Biotech has been doing clinical research with the goal of developing an obesity vaccine and patented its first in 2013 for the treatment of dogs and cats suffering from the disease. It is still in the early stages of creating a human vaccine.
• Parkinson’s – is a neurological disease that causes degeneration of nerve cells in the brain. It affects 30 million people around the world. Affiris, an Austrian biotech company, is reporting good results with its alpha-synuclein vaccine in Phase 1 clinical trial involving 24 patients. Prothena and Roche, in partnership, have a Phase 2 trial underway involving injecting alpha-synuclein antibodies directly into patients, and then there is United Neuroscience with a preclinical study of a vaccine designed to prevent proteins aggregating in cell cultures in the brain tissue of patients with Parkinson’s.
• Stroke – This disease is the brain equivalent of a heart attack. when the flow of blood is obstructed, the brain becomes damaged. Annually, 15 million worldwide suffer from a stroke with 5 million deaths and 5 million permanently disabled. High blood pressure and tobacco use are the primary causes. JN-International Medical Corporation (JNI), is an American biopharmaceutical company has filed U.S. and global patents for a potential vaccine against stroke but this, is at best, pretrial.
• Zika – A mosquito-transmitted disease that vaulted to the world stage when an outbreak in Brazil led to babies in that country being born with microcephaly and other birth defects, may have an effective vaccine preventive courtesy of the work being done at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research, in Adelaide, Australia. This T-cell based vaccine will soon enter Phase 1 human clinical trials.

So there you have it: a list of potential vaccine breakthroughs that we may see come to fruition over the next ten years.